Tom Stringfellow, president and chief investment officer of Frost Investment Advisors, offers his insight on the cause of faltering commodity prices.
“People are starting to get very nervous as commodity prices are faltering and we know it's because the global growth rate has been brought down,” Tom Stringfellow, president and chief investment officer of San Antonio-based Frost Investment Advisors LLC, which manages about $10 billion, said in a phone interview. “The U.S. alone can't support the world and the retail sales are a warning shot across the bow. One month isn't a trend but it does put people on alert.”

Excerpted from Seeking Alpha,
January 15, 2015. To view full article,
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Bloomberg: U.S. Stocks Fall on Growth Concerns as Retail Sales Drop

Tom Stringfellow, president and chief investment officer of Frost Investment Advisors, comments on the drop in commodity prices and retail sales, how both are affecting the U.S. economy, amid the decline in U.S. stocks.
• “People are starting to get very nervous as commodity prices are faltering and we know it’s because the global growth rate has been brought down,” Tom Stringfellow, president and chief investment officer of San Antonio-based Frost Investment Advisors LLC, which manages about $10 billion, said in a phone interview. “The U.S. alone can’t support the world and the retail sales are a warning shot across the bow.”

Excerpted from Bloomberg,
January 14, 2015. To view full article,
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Bloomberg: U.S. Stocks Slide, Global Bonds Rally Amid Growth Concern

Tom Stringfellow, president and chief investment officer of Frost Investment Advisors, comments on the drop in commodity prices and retail sales, and how both are affecting the U.S. economy, amid a rally in global bonds.
• “People are starting to get very nervous as commodity prices are faltering and we know it’s because the global growth rate has been brought down,” Tom Stringfellow, president and chief investment officer of San Antonio-based Frost Investment Advisors LLC, which manages about $10 billion, said in a phone interview. “The U.S. alone can’t support the world and the retail sales are a warning shot across the bow.”

​Excerpted from Bloomberg,
January 14, 2015. To view full article,
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CNNMoney: Stocks should fall further. Here's why.

Tom Stringfellow, president and chief investment officer of Frost Investment Advisors, comments on his investment strategy amid the market’s beginning-of-the-year drop that put some stocks at attractive valuations for long-term investors.
• "There are some good buying opportunities right now. We are using cash to find bargains," said Tom Stringfellow, chief investment officer with Frost Investment Advisors. "But we are looking mostly at larger, more well-known conservative companies."

Excerpted from CNNMoney,
January 06, 2015. To view full article,
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CNNMoney: Dow hits 18,000 for first time ever

Tom Stringfellow, president and chief investment officer of Frost Investment Advisors, comments on the yearly trend known as the "Santa Claus rally” whereby institutional fund managers load up on winning stocks in an attempt to show investors that they hold the year's top performers in their portfolio.
• "It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas," says Tom Stringfellow, president of Frost Investment Advisors.

Excerpted from CNNMoney,
December 23, 2014. To view full article,
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Tom Stringfellow, president and chief investment officer of Frost Investment Advisors, offers his perspective on the drop in oil price as the “Grinch that stole Christmas” in 2014 and the yearly anticipated Santa Claus rally.

Excerpted from Institutional Investor,
December 18, 2014. To view full article,
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Barron’s: Markets Plunge as Oil Panic Spreads

Tom Stringfellow, president and chief investment officer, offered his investment position amid U.S. equity markets suffering their largest point declines in more than three years.
“These kinds of markets test the mettle of investors,” says Tom Stringfellow, president of Frost Investment Advisors. “You have to step away from the monitor so you don’t do anything stupid, like hit a sell button.”

Tom Stringfellow, president and chief investment officer of Frost Investment Advisors, comments on the U.S. economy and his firm’s strategy for home-improvement retailers.
“There’s demand out there,” said Tom Stringfellow, chief investment officer of Frost Investment Advisors, which manages $10 billion, referring to the U.S. economy. “That continues to underpin [gains in] the market.”

Jeffery Elswick, director of fixed income at Frost Investment Advisors, was featured in a Barron’s profile.

Excerpted from Barron’s ,
November 08, 2014. To view full article,
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Bloomberg: Oil Stocks Lure Most Bearish Bets Since 2007: Options

Ted Harper, fund manager at Frost Investment Advisors, discusses investors’ recent sale of oil and gas shares, which have left some companies at attractive valuations.
“It was certainly the baby getting thrown out with the bathwater,” said Harper, who helps manage more than $10 billion from Houston. “When you have higher quality, consistent growers getting marked down to the extent that they’ve been, that creates opportunities.”

Excerpted from Bloomberg ,
October 29, 2014. To view full article,
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Institutional Investor: Daily Agenda: Oil Prices and the U.S. Recovery

Tom Stringfellow, president and chief investment officer of Frost Investment Advisors, discusses his outlook on the oil & energy sector.
“Looking out on a one-, two- or three-year frame may not be the correct way to assess risk for the sector,” he says.
“The oil market has proven itself time overtime of being capable of turning on a dime,” said Stringfellow.

Ted Harper, fund manager at Frost Investment Advisors, discusses the decrease in commodity prices, which reached a five-year low.
“You’ve had a continuation of the stronger dollar trend,” said Ted Harper, senior fund manager who helps manage more than $10 billion for Frost Investment Advisors LLC in Houston. “We also have growing concerns about slowing growth, at the margins domestically, but also in Asia and Europe.”

Excerpted from Money News,
October 15, 2014. To view full article,
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Tom Stringfellow, president and chief investment officer of Frost Investment Advisors, provided his outlook on economic recovery.
"We are at the stage of the recovery where organic earnings matter. Financial engineering, not so much," wrote Stringfellow in a report.

Excerpted from Institutional Investor,
October 08, 2014. To view full article,
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Bloomberg: Record S&P 500 Masks 47% of Nasdaq Mired in Bear Market

Brad Thompson, director of research at Frost Investment Advisors, discusses how some stocks perform under certain market conditions and possible market scenarios when the Fed begins to raise rates.
Stocks with weak or no earnings and fewer shares to trade fare worse during market turmoil, said Brad Thompson, director of research at Frost Investment Advisors LLC in San Antonio, Texas. More than 20 percent of companies in the Nasdaq Composite and Russell 2000 will be unprofitable this quarter, according to data compiled by Bloomberg of companies with analysts’ forecasts. Only 15 companies in the S&P 500 reported a loss for the past year.
“There is a sense of ‘Well, we’ve had a lot of liquidity, we’ve had low rates,” and “once the punch bowl is taken away, the market is going to fall,’” Thompson, who helps oversee $10 billion at Frost Investment, said in a phone interview on Sept. 10. “I’m not in that camp, but that’s one narrative that’s been played out.”

Excerpted from Bloomberg,
September 15, 2014. To view full article,
click here

Jeffery Elswick, director of fixed income at Frost Investment Advisors, discusses municipal credits.
"I do believe, on margin, this will increase the required risk premium on municipal bonds over U.S. government bonds as some banks will likely cut back their allocation to the sector," Elwick wrote in an email. "But, this does not mean banks are not going to invest in any municipal bonds going forward; it's a change on the margin in my opinion.
"Certainly relative yields may increase marginally higher as banks are some of the larger buyers of some - not all -- municipal bonds. But the largest investors in the sector continue to be money managers and retail investors, and this ruling doesn't really color this sector from these two sets of investors," he added.

Excerpted from The Bond Buyer,
September 11, 2014. To view full article,
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(subscription required)

ThinkAdvisor: What Could Keep S&P Above 2,000?

Tom Stringfellow, president and chief investment officer at Frost Investment Advisors, comments on the S&P 500’s rise above 2,000 on August 26, 2014.
“Most of the measures of prospective [economic] growth showed improvement” last week, according to Tom Stringfellow, president and chief investment officer of Frost Investment Advisors, in an outlook report released on Tuesday.
Stringfellow adds that the Future General Activity Index just hit its highest level since June 1992. “This upturn in optimism was also reflected in the New York Fed's Business Leaders Survey, with one component of the index rising to a four-year high,” he explained.

Excerpted from ThinkAdvisor,
August 26, 2014. To view full article,
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Associated Press: Why Global Turmoil Hasn’t Sunk U.S. Markets. Yet.

Tom Stringfellow, president and chief investment officer at Frost Investment Advisors, says the tit-for-tat sanctions between the West and Russia over Ukraine could push the eurozone over the edge. "Unless that is resolved quickly, you could see another recession," he says.

Excerpted from Associated Press,
August 15, 2014. To view full article,
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Financial Times: Wall Street bulls climb wall of worry

Tom Stringfellow, president and chief investment officer of Frost Investment Advisors, explains what is needed to incite equity growth.
“For equity market growth over the ensuing 12 months, we need to see more earnings driven by organic revenue growth,” says Tom Stringfellow, president of Frost Investment Advisors.

Excerpted from Financial Times,
August 15, 2014. To view full article,
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MarketWatch: Small-cap stocks will likely feel the most pain

Tom Stringfellow, president and chief investment officer at Frost Investment Advisors, offers insight on rising interest rates.
“It’s our view that Fed tightening is bullish for equities,” Tom Stringfellow, president of Frost Investment Advisors, wrote in a recent note to clients. For longer-term investors, an analysis on Tuesday by Frost Investment Advisors of market data from 1986 through 2006 shows “stocks rising on average 18% from trough to normalized rates.” Stringfellow clarified that rising rates are good news, as long as the Federal Reserve’s policy decisions are based on economic improvement.

Excerpted from MarketWatch,
August 13, 2014. To view full article,
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Live Mint: US stocks climb on economy; Europe bonds rise on ECB, Ukraine

Tom Stringfellow, president and chief investment officer of Frost Investment Advisors, comments on the decrease in jobless claims.
“You’ve got labour reports coming in positive and a gap in wages starting to fill in, which makes for a more robust consumer,” Tom Stringfellow, president and chief investment officer of San Antonio-based Frost Investment Advisors LLC, which manages about $10 billion, said in a phone interview. “A more robust economy means an improving earnings picture.”

Excerpted from Live Mint,
August 07, 2014. To view full article,
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Tom Stringfellow, president and chief investment officer of Frost Investment Advisors, comments on the possibility of the Federal Reserve raising interest rates.
“Rates are going to go up before people expect,” Tom Stringfellow, president and chief investment officer of Frost Investment Advisors LLC, said in a phone interview. “And when rates do go up, I expect some sort of a knee-jerk reaction. But I don’t believe for a moment that the Fed’s going to raise rates at a speed that derails this stable environment.”

Excerpted from Bloomberg News,
July 07, 2014. To view full article,
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The Wall Street Journal: Oil Futures Post Weekly Losses

Ted Harper, fund manager at Frost Investment Advisors, comments on the energy industry after the U.S. ruling to allow exports of a form of ultralight oil.
"More of a slight modification versus a wholesale change," said Ted Harper, fund manager at Frost Investment Advisors. "I'm not sensing a big sea change in terms of attitudes around the energy industry."

Ted Harper, fund manager at Frost Investment Advisors, weighs in on energy producers as stocks become more favorable after three difficult years in the S&P 500.
“Energy was universally despised and loathed by investors in spite of the fact that valuations were very compelling,” Ted Harper, who helps manage more than $10 billion for Frost Investment Advisors LLC in Houston, said by phone on May 22. “Consistent performance by the companies will eventually erode some of the skepticism. Energy continues to look attractive.”

Excerpted from Bloomberg News,
May 27, 2014. To view full article,
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The Wall Street Journal: Risk Appetite Leaves Gold in the Cold

Ted Harper, fund manager at Frost Investment Advisors, offers insight to investors on the gold market.
"Unless you're interested in gold coins or jewelry, there really is not much reason to buy gold right now," said Ted Harper, who helps manage around $10 billion at Frost Investment Advisors LLC in Houston. "There is still room on the downside before prices turn higher."

Jeffery Elswick, director of fixed-income at Frost Investment Advisors, provides insight on the economy as Treasuries continue to rise from losses.
“The economic situation is still not fully bared out and they have to do something with their cash,” he says. “Banks have been big buyers of Treasuries. They need safe assets.”

Excerpted from Bloomberg News, April 28, 2014. To view full article, click here.*Jeffery’s quote was picked up by MoneyNews.com, May 7, 2014. To view full article, click here.

Bloomberg News: Nasdaq Leads U.S. Stocks Lower After Amazon Results

Tom Stringfellow, president and chief investment officer of Frost Investment Advisors, comments on the markets amid Russia’s involvement in Ukraine.
“The great earnings surprises from some of the big tech stocks haven’t quite been enough to bring down the wall of worry,” he says. “Russian troops are massing up at the Ukrainian border, which is enough to make people nervous about anybody with business activities in Europe. We’ve become sensitive to having too many days of gains, and eventually there has to be a move down.”

Excerpted from Bloomberg News,
April 25, 2014. To view full article,
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The Wall Street Journal: U.S. Stocks End Lower

Tom Stringfellow, president and chief investment officer of Frost Investment Advisors, speaks on the importance of owning shares of companies that have growing profits and sales.
"Domestic markets are attractive," Mr. Stringfellow said. "The tenor hasn't changed, and more and more people are buying into the idea that the economy is grinding up that hill."

Excerpted from The Wall Street Journal, April 03, 2014. To view full article, click here. (subscription required)*Tom’s quote was also picked up by Moneynews.com, April 4, 2014. To view full article, click here.

Jeffery Elswick, director of fixed income at Frost Investment Advisors, discusses his strategy for the coporate bond market.
“Almost the entire sector of the corporate bond market has higher correlations,” to Treasurys, said Jeffery Elswick, fixed income manager at Frost Investment Advisors. So instead of making plays on the entire sector, Elswick said he is, “spending more time with individual idea names.”

Excerpted from MarketWatch,
March 27, 2014. To view full article,
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The Bond Buyer: Fund Managers Eye Economy as They Set 2nd Quarter Strategy

Jeffery Elswick, director of fixed income at Frost Investment Advisors, comments on the macro-economy as a guide in allocation strategy.
"Our expectation is that the macro-economy will pick up some momentum heading into the spring," Elswick said. "To the extent we begin to see more tangible improvements in the U.S. economy validating that the recent pull back in economic growth has had more to do with poor weather and less to do with some other type of underlying problems, we would look to lower our average maturity closer to the six to seven-year range." Elswick added."If on the other hand, we unexpectedly see the macro-environment in the U.S. not improve even as the spring rolls around, then we would look to maintain, or even increase somewhat, our current eight-year maturity profile," he said.

Excerpted from The Bond Buyer,
March 24, 2014. To view full article,
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Bloomberg News: Hedge Funds Defy Goldman as Gold Bears Thank Yellen

Ted Harper, fund manager and senior research analyst at Frost Investment Advisors, comments on the bullion market after Federal Reserve Chair Yellen hints on the rise of interest rates in 2015
“The sentiment probably had gotten a little ahead of itself,” said Ted Harper, who helps manage more than $9 billion at Frost Investment Advisors LLC in Houston. “Gold is going to be somewhat problematic from an investment standpoint over the next six to 12 months. We’re probably looking to a relatively higher and quicker increase on rates, which is a headwind for precious metals.”

Excerpted from Bloomberg News,
March 24, 2014. To view full article,
click here

Jeffery Elswick, director of fixed income at Frost Investment Advisors, speaks on the federal investigation into how banks allocate corporate-bond offerings.
“Investors aren’t being treated equally,” said Jeffery Elswick, director of fixed-income at San Antonio-based Frost Investment Advisors, which oversees about $5 billion in fixed-income securities. “We’ve had a broker-dealer tell us there’s nothing we can do. We’ve had another say that unless we did much more volume with them in the secondary market, there was very little we could do.”

Excerpted from Bloomberg News,
March 04, 2014. To view full article,
click here

Tom Stringfellow, president and chief investment officer of Frost Investment Advisors, provides insight on the rise of U.S. stocks as tension ease in the Ukraine.
“The drop yesterday and the bounce today are indicative of a lot of nervous investors who are trying to rationalize their long positions,” Tom Stringfellow, president and chief investment officer of San Antonio-based Frost Investment Advisors LLC, which manages about $10 billion, said by phone. “Our investment process thesis long-term has not changed. I am still an optimist that GDP growth will be higher than what downward revisions are. There are underpinnings in the economy that are churning along.”

Excerpted from Bloomberg News,
March 04, 2014. To view full article,
click here

Wall Street Journal: S&P 500 Marches Higher to Record Finish

Tom Stringfellow, president and chief investment officer of Frost Investment Advisors, comments on the holding pattern among investors, amid the market rally end-of-February.
"We're probably going to have to see a few quarters of positive banners [on the economy] for investors sitting on the sidelines to come back into the market," said Tom Stringfellow, chief investment officer at Frost Investment Advisors, with $9.9 billion in assets under management. "We have stocks to buy, if we get cash coming in," Mr. Stringfellow added. "But I have not seen any type of wholesale movement out of cash into the market at this time."

Tom Stringfellow, president and chief investment officer of Frost Investment Advisors, weighs in on the stability of emerging markets after interest rates increased in Turkey and South Africa.
“It's certainly one of those unsettling events,” said Tom Stringfellow, chief investment officer of Frost Investment Advisors, which manages $10 billion. The fund has a small allocation to emerging markets, and he said the firm hasn't decided if it will cut back.

"The other factors that normally influence stock prices, like inflation, profit growth, economic expansion, and housing, appear to be in decent shape," says Tom Stringfellow, president of Frost Investment Advisors."I don't see a lot of negatives out there besides that the market is at an all-time high."

"The economy is too fragile if they push to the limit" on the debt ceiling, said Tom Stringfellow, president and chief investment officer of San Antonio-based Frost Investment Advisors. "I suspect the central bank will continue with the channels and volume they’ve been going through for the last several years."

Excerpted from Bloomberg Businessweek,
October 07, 2013. To view full article,
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CNNMoney: Stocks Break Five-Day Losing Streak

Despite all the squabbling, investors largely assume that lawmakers will reach a last-minute deal.
"Expectations are that a stop gap budget will once again be proposed and approved," said Tom Stringfellow, chief investment officer at Frost Investment Advisors.

Excerpted from CNNMoney,
September 26, 2013. To view full article,
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The Wall Street Journal: Stocks Are Seen Braced for a Fed ‘Taper’ – But Vulnerable to Surprises

"My guess is that they don't say that they're methodically going to withdraw from the support of the financial markets," said Tom Stringfellow, president of Frost Investment Advisors, which oversees $9.5 billion in San Antonio, Texas. "You put a program in place, and you give yourself an exit in case there are signs of a slowdown."

"It's pretty transparent that ETFs, certainly in the rates market, have had to sell securities," said Jeffery Elswick, director of fixed income at Frost Investment Advisors. "When we’ve seen some of the ETFs or mutual funds sell, it translates into lower prices pretty quickly."

Excerpted from MarketWatch,
August 30, 2013. To view full article,
click here